The subject of the poem is William Herbert (d. 1469), the most prominent Welsh supporter of the Yorkists during the Wars of the Roses. The son of Sir William ap Thomas of Raglan, he was made Lord Herbert of Raglan by Edward IV in 1461. A further elevation, as the Earl of Pembroke in 1468, precipitated the defection of the Earl of Warwick to the Lancastrian party, and Herbert was killed by Warwick at the battle of Banbury in 1469.
During the 1460s, Herbert led a number of raids on Lancastrian centres in Wales. The poem refers to his capture of Harlech castle in 1468, the stronghold of Jasper Tudor and the Lancastrian faction in Wales. Herbert’s army attacked from the north, via Chester and Denbigh, ravaging Snowdonia, and from the south, in Pembroke (previously captured by Herbert), heading north along the old Roman road, Sarn Elen.
Though Chester is not specifically mentioned in the poem, Herbert was supported by men of Chester, a city staunchly loyal to the Yorkist king. Compare Poem 2 which gives the perspective of the Lancastrian leader Rheinallt ap Gruffydd, one of the soldiers who held Harlech against the Yorkists. In this poem, Guto pleads with Herbert ( a Welsh-speaking Welshman) not to foster the enmity between the different regions of Wales brought about by English factionalism, but to unite Wales as one nation, empowered to resist English rule.
Author:
Guto’r Glyn
Metre:
Cywydd
Manuscripts:
Printed Text:
Williams, 1939, no. 48; Parry, 1962, no. 70.
Printed Translation: Clancy, 1965, 207.
o Gymru, ‘from Wales’: a number of manuscripts read
aeth i Gymru, 'went to Wales'. Going 'from' Wales indicates that most of Herbert’s army was assembled in Wales and the March, travelling to Harlech from points within Wales itself. The poet is making the point that it was the Welsh fighting the Welsh in their own version of the civil war.
llu’r pil, ‘army of the pillage’: the poem says that the army was in three sections, a ground force of 'pillagers' sent ahead to ravage and terrorise, another led by Lord William himself and a third by the 'Viscount', William’s brother Sir Richard. Welsh
pilis borrowed from Middle English
pile, ‘to pillage, plunder.’ The phrase
llu’r pilappears in a number of fifteenty-century poems (see
llufor references).
tir Offa hen: ‘land of old Offa’, the 8th-century Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia who constructed a barricade in the form of a dyke along the border between Mercia and Powys, forming an unofficial border between England and Wales.
Clawdd Offa, 'Offa’s Dyke', is still used in contemporary literature as a powerful metonymy of Wales’s relationship with England.
Sarn Elen: the Welsh name given to sections of Roman road in south and mid-Wales. The road was named after Elen, the British wife of the 4th-century Roman governor of Britain, Magnus Maximus.
gwal Benfro, ‘Pembroke’s wall’: Pembroke castle, held by Jasper Tudor, had been captured by Herbert in 1461.
Carreg Cennen: a fortress on a high hill in Carmarthenshire, associated with the twelfth-century prince of south Wales, Rhys ap Gruffudd, this was another of Jasper Tudor’s strongholds which had been seized by Herbert.
Pawl, ‘St Paul’: this is a reference to the conversion of St Paul on the road to Damascus where he received a vision of Christ.
Pedr y gwenyn: literally, ‘Peter of the bees’ or ‘Peter’s bees’. This reference is obscure. There are no biblical references which connect St Peter with bees, and the image may refer to a local legend of Peter ridding the land (or a person) of a swarm of bees. The poet is asking Herbert to spare Gwynedd from his ravages.
plant Ronwen, ‘Rhonwen’s children’: Rhonwen, or Rowena, was the daughter of Hengist, according to Nennius (
bwrdais, ‘burgess’: a citizen of one of the borough towns in north Wales and the March, such as Flint, Denbigh and Chester. Since these towns were English foundations from which the Welsh were largely excluded, at least until the later part of the fourteenth century, the term
bwrdaisis more or less synonymous with
Sais, 'an Englishman'.
o Gymru, ‘from Wales’: a number of manuscripts read
aeth i Gymru, 'went to Wales'. Going 'from' Wales indicates that most of Herbert’s army was assembled in Wales and the March, travelling to Harlech from points within Wales itself. The poet is making the point that it was the Welsh fighting the Welsh in their own version of the civil war.
llu’r pil, ‘army of the pillage’: the poem says that the army was in three sections, a ground force of 'pillagers' sent ahead to ravage and terrorise, another led by Lord William himself and a third by the 'Viscount', William’s brother Sir Richard. Welsh
pilis borrowed from Middle English
pile, ‘to pillage, plunder.’ The phrase
llu’r pilappears in a number of fifteenty-century poems (see
llufor references).
tir Offa hen: ‘land of old Offa’, the 8th-century Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia who constructed a barricade in the form of a dyke along the border between Mercia and Powys, forming an unofficial border between England and Wales.
Clawdd Offa, 'Offa’s Dyke', is still used in contemporary literature as a powerful metonymy of Wales’s relationship with England.
Sarn Elen: the Welsh name given to sections of Roman road in south and mid-Wales. The road was named after Elen, the British wife of the 4th-century Roman governor of Britain, Magnus Maximus.
gwal Benfro, ‘Pembroke’s wall’: Pembroke castle, held by Jasper Tudor, had been captured by Herbert in 1461.
Carreg Cennen: a fortress on a high hill in Carmarthenshire, associated with the twelfth-century prince of south Wales, Rhys ap Gruffudd, this was another of Jasper Tudor’s strongholds which had been seized by Herbert.
Pawl, ‘St Paul’: this is a reference to the conversion of St Paul on the road to Damascus where he received a vision of Christ.
Pedr y gwenyn: literally, ‘Peter of the bees’ or ‘Peter’s bees’. This reference is obscure. There are no biblical references which connect St Peter with bees, and the image may refer to a local legend of Peter ridding the land (or a person) of a swarm of bees. The poet is asking Herbert to spare Gwynedd from his ravages.
plant Ronwen, ‘Rhonwen’s children’: Rhonwen, or Rowena, was the daughter of Hengist, according to Nennius (
bwrdais, ‘burgess’: a citizen of one of the borough towns in north Wales and the March, such as Flint, Denbigh and Chester. Since these towns were English foundations from which the Welsh were largely excluded, at least until the later part of the fourteenth century, the term
bwrdaisis more or less synonymous with
Sais, 'an Englishman'.